Labyrinth Facts (Chartres):



Labyrinth Facts:

The Labyrinth is a design that has one single path from the outside to the center. Follow the path and you will reach the center without getting lost.

RQM: Chartres design, 28 feet wide with a 6 foot center, 1 foot wide paths

• 6 rosettes in the center

• 112 lunations around the edge to represent a 4 lunar month calendar (4 x 28 days)

• 5 pieces of canvas sewn into 4 pieces, each original piece was 12’ x 15’

Chartres:

• built in 1201 AD during the reconstruction after fire of the Chartres Cathedral

• 42 feet, 3-3/8 inches wide

• different from other similar labyrinths by virtue of its lunations and central rosettes

• made from 272 stones inlaid in the floor (271 being the average number of days in a human pregnancy)

• The central rosettes are believed to represent Mary, mother of Jesus, and there are 6 petals, equal to the number of days God spent creating the Earth and the Heavens

• The lunations were used as a lunar calendar to calculate the date of Easter (Easter being the first Sunday following the spring equinox) Each quadrant has 28 lunations, hence the 4 lunar month period

• There are 28 U-turns (a lunar month, and 4x7, 7 being considered a complete cycle) as well as 6 right-angle turns (6 being equal to the number of days God spent creating the Earth and the Heavens)

• There are as many left hand turns as right hand turns in the design

• One of few medieval labyrinths to survive the centuries’ destruction, rebuilds, renovations, etc. of European churches and cathedrals, or the removal of said labyrinths from the floors

• Built such that it is the same size as the rose shaped stained glass window over the door, and the same horizontal distance from the door as the window is vertically above it

• Chartres Cathedral was one of hundreds of pilgrimage sites in Europe during the Crusades, where pilgrims who would normally bound for Jerusalem would walk the labyrinth instead

• Occasionally believed to have been used for the purposes of penance (walk the labyrinth on your knees)

The Chartres and other circular (and circular-derived) labyrinths are generally considered to be Christian constructs and date from the Medieval period.

The Cretan design is much older, dating back at least 3500 years, and seems to have evolved independently in dozens of cultures throughout the world and history with, as well as independent of, the travels of Man.

Other Labyrinths:

There are a number of designs related to the Medieval design – of which the Chartres is one – which integrate such things as columns in the churches, or paths that are octagonal in shape and equal in width to the path borders

Roman Labyrinths are square and have the walker walking through each quadrant completely before moving on to the next. They are square because Roman tiles, being square, were more easily adapted to a square design than a round design.

The Classical or Cretan Labyrinths are traditionally made up of 7 circuits but are easily reduced to 3 or expanded to 11, 15 or more by slightly modifying the seed pattern of a cross, ‘L’ shapes in each quadrant of the cross, and dot in the corners of the design, then connecting the ends and dots to create the paths.

The North American Hopi also have two types of Labyrinths, one virtually identical to the Cretan, and one which is actually two unicursal paths, one surrounding the other

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